Can I start this off by saying that the supermarket magazines and tabloids in the checkout lines really piss me off?

Okay- the supermarket magazines and tabloids in the checkout lines REALLY PISS ME OFF.

One of today's covers featured weight loss "winners" and "losers." But see, this is the crazy part: the losers were the ones who had gained weight. Apparently.

Damn that sounds familiar. "Who's the Biggest Loser?"

The winner, of course, was the girl who had lost weight. And pretty dramatically. I wanted to say, "But she doesn't have any boobs!" And for the loser, she looked normal. Like a woman in her late 20s should look. Curvy. Womanly. Not boyish with some fake boobs stuck in at the last minute.

Another magazine cover said "Lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks!" Um, right. I wonder if they know that one of the criteria for inpatient treatment for an eating disorder is the loss of more than 15 pounds in a month. And the only way 20 pounds will come off your body in two weeks is a) dehydration and b) physically removing a limb.

Lovely.

This does not directly cause anorexia. Nope. Not one bit. Anorexia nervosa has been diagnosed in various forms since the Middle Ages (see Rudolph Bell's book Holy Anorexia for an interesting look at fasting saints in the Catholic Church. Same sort of symptomatology as current AN, but a slightly different motivation. Which I could right a freaking book about...my Master's thesis, perhaps?) But it certainly provides a motivation to begin restricting one's diet. To lose a little weight. To be a little healthier.

And apparently, our government is in total agreement with these tabloid magazines. They are spending $1 billion this coming year on "Nutrition Education." It will include

"fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.... "

All of this in spite of the fact that they have proven to be, in the words of Junkfood Science author Sandy Szwarc, dismal to say the least.

Why are the results completely lacking in showing any lasting behavior changes? Because your weight is based on your DNA. Fat people don't eat more than thin people. I did not grow up in a good food/bad food household, and I enjoy a wide variety of foods. I love fruit (not just an ED thing). And give me some veggies, a wok, and some yummy oil (sesame is my favorite) and I can make anything taste good. I'm quirky, to be sure, but most people are.

The irony is that the more these "interventions" don't work, the more effort that is thrown into them. As in, "if a little doesn't do much, a lot will!" This works for some things, in some cases. But sometimes, you just have to conclude that this just won't work.

I'm tired of this. I don't honestly care how much a particular celebrity weighs, or what new nutrition recommendations are out there. Green tea? Drink up, honey bun, because you have to have at least 8 cups to have even a marginal effect. I love tea but not that much.

I think, after all of this time, I'm getting a pretty good grip on what my body needs to stay healthy. Advice be damned.